Gas Law Demos

Gas Law Demos
(These worked well and required little money for materials  – Betsy Seitz)
PTV Sticks:
- I used these to help students see how pressure, volume, and temperature were related
while we discussed the gas laws and did the demos
- I used jumbo popsicle sticks and a marker to make these
- On one side of each stick I wrote: P T V
- The letters were spaced so that the P was at one end, the T in the middle, and the V at
the other end
- To use: hold the stick by the letter of the variable that is held constant, then move the
stick so that the variable you are changing goes up or down, the other variable will
move as well to increase or decrease accordingly. I.E., if temp is constant (hold by
T), and you are decreasing volume (move the V side down), the pressure will rise
(you will see that the P side is now up)
- The student thought these were pretty cool and wanted to keep them
Boyle’s Law:
Peep/Marshmallow in Bell Jar

– put peep in bell jar and turn on vacuum
– peep will expand
o ↓ P around the peep, so P inside was now greater than P outside of peep, so V
of peep ↑
o P↓, V ↑
- a balloon would also work for this demo
Marshmallow in syringe
- I used small syringes and mini marshmallows and let the students do this as I
demonstrated
– pass out syringes and marshmallows
– tell students to take cap off the syringe and pull the plunger out of the syringe, drop in
a marshmallow, and then push the plunger into the syringe just up to the point that the
plunger barely touched the marshmallow, then replace the cap
o Pull plunger out, you decrease P and V increased
o Push plunger in, you increase P and V decreases
Charles’s Law:
Balloon in ice water/balloon in hot water

- blow up 3 balloons to same size
- put one in ice water and hold for several minutes – balloon should shrink
o ↓ T, the mC’s slow down which means fewer collisions with the sides of the
balloon, so not much pressure inside so V ↓
o T↓, V↓
- put one in the steam of a beaker of boiling water - balloon should expand
o ↑ T, the mC’s speed up which means more collisions with the side of the
balloon, so more pressure inside so V↑
o T↑, V↑
- leave one alone to use as comparison
(I had trouble getting the cold balloon to shrink, so I didn’t use this one. Amy Hodgeson
said she has done it before, so I think I wasn’t keeping the balloon in the ice water as long
as I should have.)
Mylar balloon
- I bought a helium filled mylar balloon at the grocery store
- I showed the class that the balloon was filled to capacity by showing that I couldn’t
squeeze it in
- Since it was winter, I tied the balloon to an object inside, opened the window and
pushed the balloon out.
- After a couple of minutes, the balloon shrank
- I pulled it inside, showed them I could squeeze it now (very quickly the warmth of
the room made the balloon as it was before going outside
(same reasoning as above)
Gay-Lussac’s Law:
Egg in a bottle
– take a glass bottle (I use`d apple juice bottle) and put a lit match (or two) inside
– cover top with hard boiled egg that has been peeled
– when the match goes out, the egg will be “sucked” into the bottle
o When air inside cooled from the match going out, the pressure dropped due to
fewer collisions of air with side of bottle, but pressure outside is same pushing
in on bottle, so egg is pushed into bottle so pressure will equalize
o T↓ and then P↓
- to get the egg out of the bottle when done, turn it upside down so that the egg is
covering the opening and run hot water over the bottle – the egg will pop out. OR
turn bottle upside down so egg is covering the opening, put your mouth around the
opening (head tilted back so bottle stays upside down) blow hard and remove bottle
from mouth – egg will pop out into mouth
Candle in water
- I set this up in lab stations and had the students do this
- At each station: Petri dish filled with water, ball of clay, birthday candle, matches, 2
coins, 150 mL beaker
- Put the candle in the clay to act as a holder and put this along with coins in the Petri
dish
– Light candle sitting in water and cover with beaker (rest beaker on top of the coins so
that water can move under the beaker
– When candle goes out, they will see the water level inside the beaker rise
o When air inside cooled from the candle going out, the pressure dropped due to
fewer collisions of air with side of beaker and with the surface of the water,
but pressure outside is same pushing down on the water in the dish, so water is
pushed up into beaker
o T↓ and then P↓
Ice boiler
– fill round bottom flask half way with water (and a couple boiling chips if available)
and clamp it to a ring stand over a bunsen burner
– heat until water boils then turn off heat and stopper flask when boiling has stopped
– turn rbf upside down (use hot pads) and wait a few minutes until it cools a little
– rub ice on top (which is actually bottom part of flask since it is upside down)
– water will begin boiling again.
o T↓, cooled the air above the water
o P↓ allowing the water mC’s to cross into the gas phase (ie, boil again)
Pop can
– put a little water into pop can and put it on hotplate to get water boiling (you will see
steam coming out of top)
- once boiling use tongs to remove can from hotplate and quickly invert can into large
beaker of ice water
– can will implode with loud crunch
o T↓ so the P on the inside of the can was lowered causing the P on the outside
of the can to crush the can in
o T↓, P↓

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Gas Law Demos

Peep/Marshmallow in Bell Jar

Balloon in ice water/balloon in hot water

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